Love Hurts
by You'llRememberMe
Summary: Long overdue tag to 7x7 "Deez Nups". After the events of Lassiter's wedding, Juliet reflects on her relationship with Shawn. Somehow, she finds that beyond the pain of being lied to for seven years there's one thing that hurts even more.


_**A/N: Though I don't go into much, if any, detail on the references in this story, something about Juliet never contemplating the events of "Rob-a-bye Baby" and "Shawn Rescues Darth Vader" really bothered me. I needed to at least get that out there in whatever form I could manage.**_

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Psych and I never will.**

_**I hope you guys enjoy this!**_

_**OOOOOOoooooOOOOOO**_

Juliet could scarcely believe what had happened. It was almost inconceivable. Never in a million years could she have predicted the events of the night before.

Sitting on the couch, Juliet could only stare off into space. She'd called in sick to work, and hadn't bothered to get dressed after doing so. Her hair hung around her face, limp and lifeless. The makeup she'd worn to Lassiter's wedding now a smudged disaster since she'd never bothered to remove it.

That was another thing Juliet found hard to believe: Lassiter was _married. _Carlton Lassiter, a married man. It was one thing to acknowledge that the man had fallen in love, with a criminal no less, but it was another thing entirely to realize that he found it in him to love a woman so deeply as to marry her. Juliet was happy for him, she really was.

But she was also angry.

Angry with herself for being so stupid and naive. Angry with Lassiter for finding the happiness that Juliet had thought herself so close to attaining.

Mostly, though, she was angry with _him._

Shawn Spencer.

The man she'd believed to be a psychic was nothing more than a lowlife fraud, like her father. Underneath the shock of the news, Juliet was absolutely livid. He'd been lying to her for _years. _He'd conned his way out of an arrest and into her life in the most despicable of ways. He'd worn a ridiculous facade for the entirety of their relationship, from friends to so much more. And yet, Juliet couldn't find it in her to hate him. God knew she wished she could; it would make everything so much simpler.

At that moment, she'd love nothing more than to be able to wish he would go to prison. But she couldn't. She couldn't hope to have him turned in for fraud. Not only would she feel as if she was committing the ultimate betrayal (even though he'd betrayed her first), but such a confession would but more than a hundred past cases at risk of being overturned. She couldn't do that to the innocent people that Shawn had brought justice to, no matter how hurt she was or that it was her duty as an officer of the law.

How she had gotten sucked into such a mess, she wasn't sure. She supposed that it had been bound to happen, fake psychic or not. That was just Shawn's nature: messy, uncontrollable, and uninhibited. He was a free spirit, and Juliet had known that long before they'd ever gotten involved. He did what he wanted on nothing more than a whim. He got what he wanted by any means necessary, so long as the endgame was favorable.

She remembered a time, about five years ago, when Shawn had made another spur-of-the-moment decision.

He'd proposed to her. On the spot. In front of dozens of people.

She'd been so stunned, unable to do more than stare at him as if he'd grown a second head. The people around them had gawked and waited for her to reply with an excited squeal of _yes. _They were disappointed, though, because in the next moment Shawn had taken her aside and explained his plan to her. The onlookers had soon received news of her joyous engagement to Shawn, and they had responded with a round of applause for the happy couple.

Juliet really wished she could go back to that moment. As shocked as she'd been in that moment, when she looked back on it now she realized that she hadn't been totally against the thought of marrying Shawn Spencer. In fact, she might've been a little too comfortable with the idea. She'd even tried on the name for size. _Juliet Spencer._

Juliet pushed the heels of her hands to her closed eyes in an attempt to ward off the tears she knew would come no matter what. Oh, how stupid she had been! To even think of marrying Shawn, if but for a moment, was ridiculous. She should've known right from the beginning that they would never last. He was a born liar, and nothing more. She'd seen the evidence countless times.

Rigging the horoscope in the newspaper to make her think they were soul mates.

Lying to the people at the beach that day to make them think she and Shawn were engaged.

Effortlessly deceiving a polygraph.

Hell, he even made up a new name for his best friend whenever he introduced him!

She should've known better.

It had been a mistake from the very beginning. From the "very close talking" to finally admitting how she felt about him when they both knew she was already involved with Declan.

Juliet felt a tear slide down her cheek. Even after everything, after all the lies, she still couldn't hate him for what he'd done. She didn't think she could ever hate him, no matter how much he'd hurt her.

Because she loved him.

And that's what hurt the most.

_**OOOOOOoooooOOOOOO**_

_**I really hope that even if you didn't like this story you'll leave me a little feedback in the form of a review. I'd really love to know not only your thoughts on my story, but your thoughts on Juliet and Shawn's relationship and the events of "Deez Nups," too.**_

_**Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this story!**_


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